salt and sugar

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charlesnapolitano
charlesnapolitano Posts: 302 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How can I get my sodium and sugar sown to where MFB wants me to have it. It seems everything has sodium in it or sugar. I try not to eat alot of processed foods but sometimes I have to. I drink about 8-10 cup a water a day and been cutting out pop. Is there some secret to avoiding salt?

Also I bought some Body Fortress Super Advanced Whey Protein Powder Vanilla. Can I throw that on food like oatmeal?

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  • charlesnapolitano
    charlesnapolitano Posts: 302 Member
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    help please
  • boroko
    boroko Posts: 358 Member
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    OK. You asked for help so I've just looked at your food diary for the past week or so and it's pretty easy to see where the high levels are from. You say you don't eat a lot of processed food but this isn't what I see in your diary and that's where the culprits are.

    Processed meat and ready meals are easy and tasty but packed with stuff you don't need. Try swapping the sausages, bologna etc for fresh lean chicken, turkey, fish etc. I don't know what all the foods you list are as I'm in the UK but things like 'Burgers Smokehouse Country Ham', 'Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes' are amazingly high in salt, as are the canned carrots. Try cooking these from fresh or at least looking for alternative products with lower salt levels. Look also at things like bread and baked beans as different brands can vary massively in their salt and sugar levels.

    Eating out can be a minefield for added salt and sugar but if you have favourite restaurants try looking at the nutritional content of some of their dishes online before you go out to work out which things are best to order and what to avoid.

    With some careful label reading and a bit of time invested in cooking fresh you will make a big change and feel so much better for it. Good luck!
  • socajam
    socajam Posts: 2,530 Member
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    Instead of repeating what others have said here are some that I have done and have worked to me:

    ¼ cup black lentils, 1 slice cheese, 1 tomato, 1/3 cup red onions, and ½ cup bell peppers, sautéed add lentils and cheese very filling and practically salt free – seasoned with Mrs. Dash. Serve with 2 slices of toasted bread.

    Dinner – boiled potatoes, mashed with Mrs Dash, fresh cilantro and spring onions served with baby carrots, string beans (2 cups @ 50 calories) or sautéed onions, spinach, tomato and bell peppers with 2 cups of string beans served with baked/broiled chicken.

    I have made black lentils, string beans my best friends. Yesterday I cut Japanese pumpkin into fries along with a little salt and some no-salt seasoning served with broiled salmon and sautéed onion, peppers, spinach, and sweet corn, kept me satisfied up to 8 pm lat night.

    Yesterday, I also cooked a big pot of black beans with a little salt and olive oil, for eating at lunch times with either salmon burger or some fish (I do not eat meat/chicken) along with a little salsa. The sodium content in the home cooked black beans was amazingly less than if I had used the tin version; those are some of the conscious choices will have to be made.

    I have cut back on eating a lot of cheese, even bread. You are going to have to eat more fresh and cooked food at least 90% of the time. I cook 100% of my food; plan what I am going to eat days in advance because food is my weakness, and in order to stay on track I need to have some sort of a plan.

    For example, I love ice cream, but the calorie is too high, I decided to only eat Haagen Dazs ice cream once a week and like this: ¼ cup of coconut pineapple and ¼ cup of cherry vanilla. You can lose weight, but from your diary, you are going to have to rethink what you eat, there is nothing to say that you cannot have bologna once a week, but not every day.

    Home made porridge is very filling with skimmed milk and a little sugar and cinnamon for breakfast. I also have one cup of plain low fat yogurt in blender with frozen banana and fresh strawberries (even frozen strawberries) for breakfast, sometimes along with a homemade tuna wrap.

    Drinking all the water and eating such a high volume of sodium is not going to shift the weight. When my sodium levels are high, I normally juice cucumber, celery and ginger and drink it for a couple of days to relieve my body of all that salt.

    You are welcome to have a look at my diary if you like.
  • Brad805
    Brad805 Posts: 289 Member
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    Shop from the outside perimeter of the grocery store and you will have the opposite problem unless you add salt to your meals. It takes a little more time and planning, but it is worth the effort.
  • RieRie63
    RieRie63 Posts: 3 Member
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    Charles, one thing that helps me (and I have HBP, so need to watch the sodium) -- stick to items with shortest shelf life. The longer a food item will keep before expiring, often, that item is full of sodium. So -- fresh fruit, vegetables, yogurts (Greek-style yogurt has the highest protein) are much lower in sodium than, say, a slice of bologna or a package of peanut butter crackers.

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